China: GEF Grant to Facilitate Climate Technology Dissemination

WASHINGTON, DC May 29, 2012 - Today the World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a grant of US$5 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to the People’s Republic of China to support the government’s efforts to assess climate mitigation and adaptation technology needs and adopt corresponding global best practices. The project is called the China Climate Technology Needs Assessment Project.

China is facing a major challenge in mitigating and adapting to climate change. On the mitigation side, China has become the world’s largest carbon emitter although per capita emissions remain a fraction of the average developed country level. Projections under business-as-usual conditions show continually growing emissions. On the adaptation side, China is vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, which could intensify water shortages in northern China, increase the incidence of extreme temperature events and consequent flooding and droughts, and reduce the yields of major crops.

“To address climate change, the government has stressed the role of advanced technologies for both mitigation and adaptation,” said Carter Brandon, World Bank’s China Coordinator for Agriculture, Environment and Forestry Sector. “The GEF grant project is designed to assist the government in assessing its technology needs and strengthen its capacities to modify, transfer, or disseminate climate mitigation and adaptation technologies.”

This Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) will mainly support:

Development of methodologies to assess technology needs under national and international peer-review;

Identification of key climate technology gaps, corresponding global technologies, best practices, and barriers for technology transfer and deployment in selected sectors and provinces;

Capacity building to strengthen climate technology knowledge centers and networks at the national, provincial and sectoral levels, including the creation of publically-available climate technology databases; and

A pilot program to accelerate technology transfer through "Technology Improvement Grants” that support small and medium sized companies in project provinces to procure goods and services required to accelerate the process of technology transfer, diffusion, and scale-up.

The project will be implemented by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the agency chairing the National Climate Change Leading Group under the State Council and representing China at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Appearing at a China side event at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa, on December 5, 2011, Ms Monique Barbut, GEF Chief Executive Officer, said that: “The TNA is a country-driven activity to assist in identifying and analyzing priority technology needs for mitigating and adapting to climate change. China has developed its own methodology unique among the large developing countries.”

Established in 1991, the GEF is today the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment. It provides grants to developing countries and countries in transition for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.